I'd Tell You I Love You A Specialists Story
by x5kate
Summary: This is a romance/action story including some bad a** characters! :  Feedback is appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

"Serve's up!"

Kate watched as the opposing team's server sent the volleyball soaring over the net.

"Nine nine nine!" she called, yelling for the set.

Her setter, knowing that Kate could get a kill when they needed it, gave her a perfect set. Kate approached, jumped high, and swung. The ball smashed down on the other side in one of what had become her signature spikes.

The crowd erupted into cheers of, "FREEBIRDDDDD!"

After the game, which was a crushing victory for her high school, and what would be her last high school volleyball game ever, Kate walked out of the locker room in her tank top and short spandex.

She managed to get rid of most of the parents who were congratulating her, when she heard a voice say, " Kate Freebird."

She turned to see two men standing before her. One, she had seen before, the other was a stranger. The former was an older man, short, but imposing. He had thinning silver hair, and sported a golden tooth.

The second man was far younger, and wore dark sunglasses. He was also possibly the most attractive man Kate had ever seen, including in the movies or on TV.

Kate managed to tear her eyes away from the younger man when she realized from where she knew the older man. She flashed back to four years ago at the CIA training camps she had attended. She had thought those days were behind her, until now.

The silver haired man, who Kate knew as Harold Johanson, the head of the teen agents program of the government, said, "Your country needs you."

Kate gave a dry laugh, responding, "Yeah, cause _that_ doesn't sound cliched."

The handsome man finally took off his sunglasses, revealing startlingly light green eyes. Kate looked into them, saying, "I'm done with you guys. I _have_ a future now. I'm over those days."

Harold Johanson replied, "You are never done with us. Not you, not with your undercover skills."

"My skills? What about my volleyball skills? I go with you, and I give that up." Kate couldn't help the lump that was rising in her throat when she addressed them. "I have a full ride scholarship to USC next year."

"You made a commitment. To us, to yourself, to your country." The man with the green eyes stared her down. Kate managed a defiant look, then was cut off.

"Kate, I didn't want it to come to this, but you seem to think that you have a choice." Kate was floored by this, and just stared at Harold.

"Your parents have been notified. You have 96 hours to pack your things, tie up loose ends, and report to the CIA headquarters." Kate could only watch as the two men nodded and walked away.


	2. Chapter 2

"Freebird, Kate?"  
>"Here!", Kate replied, glancing over at the lady taking attendance.<br>She was in Rhodes, New Mexico, at the secret CIA headquarters for TAS, or the Teen Agent Specialists. Kate, who had been home in Indiana just 24 hours ago, was overwhelmed by all of the chaos that reigned in the lobby where she sat.  
>Everywhere she looked, kids her age and adults were speaking in different languages, picking up room keys, and heading off to their respective rooms. Each new "agent" had been assigned a dorm and a roomate, depending on their specialty.<br>Since Kate's specialty was in Undercover Ops., which is in the back of the alphabet, she hadn't been assigned a room yet.  
>"Hey there. You Kate?" Kate looked to her left to see a pretty, smiling redhead standing there.<br>"Um, yeah that would be me." Kate gave the other girl a confused look. "Do I know you?"  
>The redhead laughed. "Not yet you don't. I think we're roomates. The Linguistics specialists, that would be me, are rooming with you Undercover chicks. It looks like we're the only ones left!"<br>Kate looked around, now noticing that the room had almost completely cleared out. She walked up to get her room assignment, and sure enough, it said...  
>"Rae Hartford. Yup, that's me! Oooh, our room's on the sixth floor. That's a long walk by stairs..." Kate listened to her roommate chatter, but was immediatley distracted when theywalked up tothe door to their room. On the door, there was a small, official looking sheet of paper. It simply said,<br>_**  
><strong>__**Freebird, Hartford **__**  
><strong>__**Report to 1A1H at 13:00 hours.**__**  
><strong>_  
>"Alrighty then." Rae shrugged and entered the room. Kate stood looking at the paper, and heard Rae exclaim, "Holy crap, could the beds be any smaller? God, it looks like a jail cell!"<br>"Great," Kate thought, and with a sigh, entered the room.  
>Rae laughed at the look of resignation onKate's face as she entered the room, then laughed harder as it turned to shock.<br>The room was painted a light charcoal color that matched the carpet's dark slate gray. There was a dark wood dresser on both sides of the room, and a large floor length mirror. Kate crossed to the huge window, drew back the curtains, and looked out onto a balcony which overlooked the dry New Mexico desert.  
>She turned around and looked at Rae, who was testing out one of the queen sized beds the were in opposite corners of the room from each other.<br>"Damn."  
>"I know right? Who would have thought first level agents would get a room like this?"<br>Kate's mind flashed back to the notice hanging on their door, and how she hadn't noticed one like it on any other door in their hallway.  
>"Unless..."<br>"Unless what?" Rae asked.  
>"Unless we're not first level agents."<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Hours later, after they had unpacked their things and made their room a little more "homey", Kate and Rae walked down to 1A1H, where they had been told to report.  
>Kate glanced down at what she was wearing, suddenly feeling more than a little insecure. She had on dark wash skinny jeans and a snug black tank top on, but next to the sheer formality of all the adults she had seen, she felt very sloppy and underdressed. She looked over at Rae, and felt some relief when she saw that the redhead was similiarly dressed in a t-shirt and jeans.<br>As they walked up the immaculate hallway to the room labeled 1A1H, the girls saw countless rooms, all with mysterious looking closed doors. The girls exchanged looks of trepidation and entered the room together.  
>Inside the room was a large table, around which was seated five other kids their age.<br>Kate looked around the table, focusing on each teenager, trying to memorize their faces and dispositions. A skill that she learned in her years of Undercover Ops. training, Kate was very good at reading body language and had an almost photographic memory. Although she had all but abandoned her training, it had become a habit.  
>All talk at the table ceased as the door opened again, and the incredibly good lookingguy who had come to Kate's school walked through. He surveyed the room with his unusual green eyes, and Kate shivered as his eyes swept over her.<br>"You're all here for a reason. Your'e probably wondering why you seven, and not any of the others are here."  
>The man paused, and took a seat at the head of the table.<br>One of the kids, a mean looking blind guy, took the time to say, "Dude, who the hell even are you? You don't even look like you're old enough to be an agent, let alone talk to us like we're kids!"  
>The man just looked at the blond guy, before saying, "Greg Houston? You specialize in...hand to hand combat, am I right?"<br>"That's me." the bond replied agressively.  
>"I thought so. Well, Houston, I've been an agent here since you were in elementary school. I've been here fornine years, since I was seventeen. Let me tell you, I have not only the authority to talk to you like a kid, but to kick you out of here so fast your exceptionallyquick hands would have no chance. Understood?" He gave Greg a lookunder which Greg cowered. Then he turned and addressed the room.<br>"My name is Thomas Liba. I'm better known around here as T.L. I am in charge of the Specialists branch of the TAS. You all, are the specialists."  
>Kate inhaled shaply, as did a lot of the kids around the room. T.L. continued.<br>"All of you have been chosen for your exceptional skills in one or more areas, and this rates you above your fellow agents. You will from now on train with this group, eat with this group, socialize with this group, and live with this group. You are a class all your own-not adult level agents, but not teen agents. Your skills have given you this privilege. Do not abuse it."  
>T.L. stopped to once again look around the room at the teens. "Since you all have different specialties, you should probably go around the table and introduce yourself and let the tohers know your specialty. Let's start with you, Mr. Houston."<br>Greg swallowed, and said, "Well, he already pretty much introduced me." He shot T.L. a look. "I'm Greg, and my specialty is hand to hand combat. So don't mess with me, cause I can kick any of your asses."  
>"And so very modest!" Kate couldn't help cracking. Rae snorted to her left, and another girl giggled. Greg glared at her. Kate looked up to see T. L. looking at her with an amused smile. Kate blushed under his gaze, and dropped her eyes.<br>"Miss Freebird, why don't you go next?" he suggested, still amused.  
>Kate cleared her throat and said, "Hey I'm kate Freebird. Um... I guess I specialize in Undercover Ops."<br>"Ummm...not to sound dumb, but what is that exactly?" The question came from ashortblack girl with a cropped afro. She spoke with a  
>distinct Jamaican accent.<br>T.L. answered the question, in response to the desperate look Kate threw him. She wasn't very good at public speaking, at leat not when she wasn't in the field!  
>He replied, "Kate's specialty is in Undercover Operations, which means she has exceptional skills in slipping in and out of opposing operations<br>without notice. She is essentially an undercover agent, who will cement themselves in with the enemy without their knowing,and gain information from the inside. It is one of the more dangerous specialties, since if caught, an agent must face the consequences."  
>T.L. locked eyes with Kate, and they maintained eye contact as T.L. spoke again. "Kate also forgot to mention her other specialty." Kate geve him a confused look. "She is also exceptionally skilled with weaponry, especially guns."<br>Kate blushed again, since she wished that had been forgotten. "I haven't touched a gun in years, though..."  
>The kids continued introducing themselves, but kate was hardly listening. She couldn't get the image of T.L.'s eyes staring into her's out of her head.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

After the meeting ended, Kate and Rae walked back to their room. They were discussing the code names that they had been given by TL.  
>"Well, Agent 22, I think my code name is beastlier." Rae nudged Kate, trying to get a response out of her. Kate had been unusually quiet during the rest of the meeting, and Rae thought she knew why. Kate glanced at her, and decided to humor her.<br>"I don't know, Agent 78. At least we're not Agent 69, like Greg!" the girls laughed. TL apparently had held a grudge against the annoying kid, and had given him an embarrassing code name.  
>"Hey, since TL's code name is 004, that means he's 'licensed to kill', right? Like James Bond?" Rae giggled again. She looked over at Kate to see that she had zoned out again at the mention of TL's name.<br>Rae pulled up to a stop in front of their room.  
>"Alright, let's have this out now."<br>"Have what out?" Kate shot her a perplexed look.  
>"Hmm, let me think...oh yeah! How bout what the heck is going on with you and TL?"<br>"I have no idea what you're talking about." Kate betrayed her lie by blushing and looking down as she spoke.  
>"What was with that look between you two during the meeting? That was no normal glance, babe. That was freakin' <em>long<em>! Do you have any idea how long we all sat there in akward silence while you guys were sustainng sexy eye contact?"  
>Kate turned a deeper red. She'd had no idea that anyone else had noticed, let alone that it had lasted that long.<br>"God. Well, that's not at all embarrassing." Kate sighed and stalked into the room. Rae laughed and followed her.

The next morning, Kate woke up early. She wanted to get some much needed practice in with some guns before she had to show off for the rest of her group. It would be really embarrassing to fail epically in front of everyone.  
>She dressed quickly for the warm weather in a light tank top and shorts, and slipped quietly out of the roomso as not to disturb her roommate. She had a feeling Rae was not a morning person.<br>Kate quickly grabbed a bagel as she passed the cafeteria, and headed out to the training grounds. As she entered the Shooting Barn, she saw only one other person in there.  
>He stood with his back to her, putting on goggles and gloves, and he held a simple handgun. Kate stood for a moment, admiring the guy's body, which was evident in his tight black t-shirt and jeans. Then he lifted the gun and began to shoot, and Kate hurried to put in the earplugs that everyone wore to muffle the bang of the guns.<br>She walked up to the ammunition wall, which held dozens of different guns in locked cases. She immediately noticed one gun, similiar to an AK-47, but slimmer and easier to lift and shoot. She was admiring it, when a hand touched her shoulder.  
>Kate whirled around to see the guy in the goggles standing there. He removed the goggles to reveal startlingly green eyes. He gestured for her to take out her earplugs.<br>With shaking hands, Kate did so. the man, who she now recognized as TL said, "It's a KH-86. Ever shot one?"  
>"No. I've shot an AK-47 though. It looks similiar."<br>"I think you'll find this better suited to your body type." As he said the last two words,TL ran his eyes down her body. Kate felt warm all over.  
>"Here." TL reached over to unlock the case, and handed her the gun. Kate took it, making sure not to touch his skin with hers. She could still feel were his hand had touched her shoulder.<br>Shaking off the feeling, Kate loaded the gun quickly, andwalked over to the nearest target. She pulled on her goggles and gloves, and hoisted the KH-86. Her muscles remembered exactly how to hold it steady and sight it, though it had been years. Kate focused her mind and took sight on the paper target. Then she started shooting. It was difficult for her to focus completely, especially since she was almost hyperaware of TL standing behind her, watching her.  
>Kate finished shooting, and as soon as she lowered the gun, she felt the soreness in her shoulder that she had tuned out while she was shooting. TL walked over to the target and looked at it. His smile told Kate how she did before she even saw the paper. When she looked at it, she saw that all but three of her fifteen shots had hit the small red bullseye.<br>"So much for being rusty. I knew you'd do well with this gun." Kate handed it to him, and he went to put it back on the rack.  
>Figuring she was dismissed, Kate turned to walk away. From behind her, she heard TL say, "Meet me here again tomorrow morning. I want to see how you'll doing with some moving targets."<br>Kate didn't stop smiling all the way back to her room.


	5. Chapter 5

Later, the group of seven Specialists met in the training grounds. They were in what looked like a huge obstacle course, with large walls, strange shaped monoliths, and ruined sheds. The black paint spattered all over the structures clued Kate in that they were in some kind of hardcore paintball field.  
>TL walked up with a huge bald man.<br>"This is Don Zahara. He'll be your chief fitness trainer, and will be instructing you from now on while your out here."  
>Don stepped forward, and leveled a scary glare at the kids. He said, " Today we'll be playing what we at the CIA call 'Search and Destroy.' It's a lot like paintball, but the rules are a little different. For example, once you get hit at all, you are handicapped in your play. Also, the guns shoot a thick, black tar-like paint. It hurts like hell and will ruin clothes, so you get armor to wear during the game."<br>Don and TL distributed out the armor, which was made of leather straps, and had a large plate over where the wearer's heart would be. Kate struggled into hers along with everyone else, dreading how she would look, but realized that it didn't look that bad. She glanced over aat Rae, who looked kind of like a red headed "Xena: Warrior Princess", and couldn't contain a giggle. Rae laughed similiarly at her, and kate felt better.  
>"If you get shot in the heart, you're out. Although it looks really obvious, it's actually a lot harder to hit than it looks. These exercises have been known to take several hours, depending on the skill of the players, and the fairness of the teams. Speaking of that, I don't know your specialties, TL will split you up into teams."<br>TL surveyed the group, then put Kate with the short Jamaican girl, named Kim, who specialized in electronics(basically, burglary), and a tall skinny guy named Eric, who specialized in decoding.  
>"Great," Kate thought, "Could I have a nerdier team?" To her dismay, on the other team was Rae, who seemed like she could hold her own in a fight, and Greg, the apparently beastly hand fighter. They also had two nerdy members, though.<br>"That's not fair! They've got the sharpshooter! She could take us down singlehandedly!" Greg complained to TL. Kate couldn't believe her luck.  
>"Are you kidding me? We're also down one member to you!" The odd numbers of the group had given Kate's team only three members to the other teams' four.<br>"It's still not fair! She doesn't even need teammates and she'd have the advantage." Greg still would not let it go. TL sighed, and began removing his jacket.  
>"Nuh huh. No way." Kate couldn't believe it.<br>TL just ignored her team's protests and walked over to slip on his armor. He grabbed a gun, and walked over to join Greg's team.  
>"Fair now?" he asked. Greg just grinned, shot Kate a victorious look, and stalked off for an early celebration of their inevitable victory.<br>Kate turned to her team to see them staring at her.  
>"I hope to god you're as good as you're supposed to be, mon." Kim told Kate.<br>With her statement, Kate's anger grew. Then it turned into determination.  
>"You know what? I am that good. We got this." Her teammates just looked at incredulously. Kate didn't mind. She was gonna take Greg down, 3 to 5 or not. Professional agent on their team or not.<br>"Crap." she thought. "We're screwed."

Five minutes later, Kate was crouched behind a short wall on the field. She knew her little team was spread out over the field, across from Greg's could see her opponents moving across the field, but couldn't recognize them. Then, she saw a flash of blond hair, and Greg stood up and walked out with another teen, a light haired girl named Erin.  
>"Well?" Greg called. "Where's your shooting skills at now, Freebird?"<br>Kate gritted her teeth, and slowly crawled over to the edge of her wall. She signaled to Eric to create a distraction, and he quickly ran across to another shed, and slammed the door loudly. Greg and Erin whirled around to see his foot disappear around the doorway. As they were distracted, Kate rolled to the nearest object, an old empty trash can. She peeked around the edge, and sighted her gun.  
>"Damn." Kate thought, realizing that she was still out of range. She saw red to her left, and used her instincts to sight were she thought the persons leg would be. She shot, and the bang drew the attention of everyone on the field. Kate her a yelp and realized she had made contact. The girl, who Kate now recognized as Rae stood up foolishly, and Kate saw that she had hit her in the leg. Kate jumped up, and dove to the side to avoid Greg's shot, shooting agin at rae as she fell. Not knowing or caring whether she had hit her, Kate landed and rolled, hearing Greg running toward her. She heard a bang and flinched, expecting to be hit, but instead she heard Greg cursing. She peeked over her wall, and saw that she had indeed gotten Rae out, since she now sat over by Don, who was ref-ing the game. Kate also saw that Greg had cussed because Kim had shot him as he ran across the open field to get her. He had a large paint splatter on his butt.<br>"Go Kim,"Kate thought. Shestood up to finish him off.  
>"Bang!"The numbers were now even.<p>

A half hour later, it was down to Kate and TL. She snuck around the shed, looking for any sign of her opponent. She jumped when she heard his voice from behind a wall across the field.  
>"Ready to surrender yet?"<br>Kate laughed. "We got some trash talking up in here, Don! is that allowed?" She masked her movements by throwing a rock over to the wall closest to her, then moved in the opposite direction.  
>She was tired of sneaking around. Kate decided to take the offensive, confident that her reflexes would protect her if it got into a shootdown. she emerged behind the shed to see TL disappear behind a nearby spool shaped structure. She crouched low, and moved as quickly and quietly towards the structure. She juat registered TL's gun appearing around the strusture before she heard the bang, and dove for the nearest wall. She turned her fall into a roll, and was up and shooting before TL could react. She nailed him on the hand as he pulled his gun back, and knocked the weapon far back out of his hand. He was smart enough to let it go, knowing she would shoot him down if he left his protective wall.<br>Confident that he had no defense, Kate ran towards the structure. As she neared it, TL suddenly lept out and tackled her before she could react. kate dropped the gun as she fell, TL landing hard on top of her.  
>Kate tried to catch her breath, her hands thrown above her. TL's arms supported his weight, and his eyes stared into hers.<br>"Very good, Kate. However, we've got to work on that reaction time of yours."  
>Kate laughed breathlessly, all the while feeling above her head for her dropped gun. It was suddenly very hard for her to concentrate, as she could feel his body all along hers.<br>"Looks like we're at a stalemate." TL murmered.  
>"Or not." Kate had found the gun. She suddenly shifted her weight, rolling so that she flipped TL over, and she was straddling him with her gun pressed to his head.<br>"I'd surrender if I were you. You wouldn't want word to get out that you were beaten by an eighteen year old girl." Kate laughed at the shocked look in his eyes. She raised an eyebrow, waiting for his surrender, but all the while enjoying her present position.  
>Finally, TL said, "You win. I surrender." Both could hear Greg's groans from outside field.<br>"Well played, Agent 22. Very good."  
>Kate smiled into TL's stunning eyes, and shook her head. She couldn't believe that a week ago, she would have given anything not to come here. Now she never wanted to leave.<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

Kate got up early the next morning for her meeting with TL in the Shooting Barn. She stood in front of her closet trying to decide what to wear for what seemed like forever. She wanted to look mature, but cute, and pretty but athletic. Finally, she decided on long black yoga pants and a turquoise racer back tank top. She grabbed a bagel to eat on the way, laced up her Nikes,and ran out to the barn.  
>Once there, she saw TL once again waiting for her.<br>"Sorry, am I late?" Kate hoped he hadn't been expecting her for long.  
>"Not at all. I just got here early. I wanted to check out the weaponry, and try to guess what would work better with your body type."<br>Kate couldn't tell, but it looked almost like TL had blushed when he had mentioned her body, and quickly turned away to hide it.  
>"Oh, it's just my imagination and wishful thinking," Kate told herself. Still, she couldn't help hoping...<br>"Obviously you did well with moving targets yesterday..." TL turned and winked at her, and it was Kate's turn to blush and look down. TL continued,  
>"But that was with a handgun. I want to see what you can to with one of these." He lifted a large, akward looking gun from the rack.<br>"I've never even sen anything like this, let alone tried one." Kate protested, but TL walked over with the gun anyway.  
>"If you've never used one like this, then we should probably start on a paper target." Kate accepted this as a compromise, but when she took the gun, she had no idea how to even hold it up.<br>"What the heck?" she muttered. It didn't even have a place to fit up to her shoulder.  
>"Here." TL walked up behind her and reached one arm around her to place the gun where it should go. His other arm went around her other side to lift her arm up to sight the gun. It eventually turned out so that he was holding her arms on the proper position for the gun, and was pressed up close behind her.<br>Kate could feel his warm breath against her ear as he murmered, "This type of gun is meant for intense field work. It's styled like this so that it can be easily shot while moving quickly. It also has a very large range."  
>Kate tried her hardest to concentrate on what he was saying, but she couldn't get her mind off his long, hard body pressed against her back. She took a ragged breath, and hoping that he couldn't hear how fast her heart was beating, sighted her eye to the gun. With TL still helping her hold it, she took a shot at the target. As soon as she pulled the trigger, the rebound knocked her back into TL. He caught her against his body, and she loked up breathlessly into his eyes. His strong arms held her to him, and they locked eyes for a very long moment.<br>Then the sound of approaching footsteps rang outside the barn. TL and Akte quickly jumped apart, and TL said, "We'll work on moving targets with that gun tomorow." He didn't meet her eyes.  
>"Sound good." Kate said quickly. She gathered up her stuff and walked back to her room, more confused than ever.<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

For the next few weeks, Kate's life became a blur of physical training, field training with her group, undercover ops. lessons with instructors, and, of course, her early morning meetings with TL in the shooting barn. Since their latest semi-akward, semi-romantic encounter, Kate and TL had kept their meetings strictly business.  
>Kate and Rae also grew closer to each other and to their group of Specialists over time. They were like a big family, with the exception of a couple, like Greg.<p>

One day, after a particularly violent game of Specialists vs. Agents capture the flag, Kate walked across the field to the infirmary, nursing her newly bruised face. She had a dark bruise across one cheekbone, and her jawbore a cut that was bleeding down her neck. The adult Agents were amore than a littlebitter about the much younger specialists, a lot of which were better than them, and the gamescould get pretty violent. She heard a call behind her, and slowly turned her sore neck to see TL jogging up to her.  
>"Hey." she said a little sourly, since he had been on the Agents' team.<br>"What's up with you? You all right?" Being on her left side, he couldn't see the injuries on the right side of her stopped and turned, gesturing at the bruises and the blood. TL winced when he saw, and Kate snorted and kept walking.  
>"Who did that to you?" TL seemed genuinely concerned and clueless.<br>"You really don''t get it, do you? They hate us! It's not right to put a bunch of high school seniors against fully trained agents, and expect them not to get mad when we beat them!" Kate glared at the ground, not wanting to meet TL's eyes. Suddenly, she felt his fingers against her chin. He gripped her face gently, and turned her face to the side to he could inspect her injuries better. She gritted her teeth as her neck protested the turn, and gasped at an unexpected pain in her collarbone.  
>"What's wrong?" TL released her at her gasp.<br>"Ow. God, that hurt like hell. I think something's wrong with my collarbone, too." Kate pulled her t-shirt collar to the side to inspect her collarbone, but she couldn't see whether it was bruised without turning her neck painfully. She sighed in frustration.  
>TL reached over and replaced her hands with his, and gently tugged her shirt to the side to inspect her collarbone. Seeing no bruising, he gently poked her skin, and she gasped in pain.<br>"Sorry," he murmered, removing his hands.  
>"It's fine." Kate turned and resumed walking towards the infirmary.<br>"You're right about this, you know." Kate heard TL call behind her.  
>"Right about what?" Kate stopped again and turned.<br>TL walked up to her and once again inspected her bruises. He reached out and brushed his fingers lightly against her cheekbone, across the dark shadow.  
>"I shouldn't put you all against the regular Agents. You're right that they don't like you. You know why? They're intimidated by you. Just imagine it. You're an agent who's trained for almost seven years here, struggled all your adult life to get where you are, and now these...well, kids come in here and threaten your position. They haven't worked for what they have, they just have it. You guys all have talent, you haven't worked for this."<br>Kate cut him off. "Don't act like we wanted it this way. Weeks ago, I didn't even want to be here."  
>"That's not what I'm saying, Kate. I just want you to understand how they feel. Hell, how I feel. I look at you, and I see a woman who has an uncanny talent for what she does. I've been here for years, and in one summer of training and just weeks of being here, you're approaching my level of skill. Can you imagine how that feels?"<br>Kate stared into TL's eyes, shocked at his words. TL stared back, and finally Kate whispered, "I had no idea you felt that way..."  
>TL sighed heavily. "It's not that bad, I was being melodramatic. Forget I said anything."<br>"Not likely," Kate replied. She looked up at TL again, turned, and walked off.  
>"Tomorrow morning?" TL called.<br>Kate kept walking.


End file.
